Once again, why I hate the state of American education.

[Roxas1359]

Huh. I feel downright lucky, now. 'Course, taking the specifically English Literature course senior year may have had something to do with it.
That said, my favorite book was kind of a surprise. How many people hear "literary classics" and think Bless Me, Ultima at any point?
My English class just finished reading that book. I thought it was pretty good and now we are going to read Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
Edit: I fail a quoting sometimes.

 

[Sethzard]

I had to prove to my 11th grade English teacher that disorientated was a word. Sad day...

After that, he differed to my vocabulary in times of duress.

But it isn't it should be Disoriented, you're probably getting confused with disorientate.

No, disorientated is a word. Its the past tense of disorientate. Spinning on a chair disorientated you.

Disoriented is a state of being. Because i was spinning on a chair, i am disoriented.

sorry, at time of writing i was tired, i'm now awake thanks to coke, and you're right

Ah, Coca Cola. The original. The best. The first to bring us the 'shyk' sound. mmmmm.

Coke zero only because my mum's a doctor.

 

[Berethond]

Honestly, I don't know what you guys are talking about. My English teacher has a masters degree, and is extremely good at what he does. My history teacher also teaches at a college during his spare time. My Anatomy / Physiology teacher has experience up the wazoo. My jazz instructor went to Juilliard and conducts (and writes) symphonies when he's bored.

Maybe I'm just extremely lucky.

 

[Tharwen]

EDIT: In my rush to be a grammer nazi I myself made many grammatical errors including confusing the mispronunciation of the word I was bitching about in the first place...

...and the spelling of another.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

*Shakespeare
**This one has bugged me for a while now. What the fuck is a 'Shakespeare Play?' You don't get a 'Tolkien Book' or a 'Shakespeare Poem' or 'Shakespeare Sonnet' (although you do get a '(Michael Bay's) Michael Bay Film (Directed by Michael Bay (MICHAEL BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneone)). It's just a play, written by Shakespeare.

You've clearly never seen a Shakespearian work in your life, have you?

Are you fucking kidding me? I live in England; they feed you that shit for breakfast until you're eleven. You also clearly never read the rest of my post, did you? Besides, it's the bullshit term 'Shakespeare Play' that I'm complaining about.

Really?

Most people would quite happily talk about a "Hemingway" or "Steinbeck" and the listener should know perfectly well it's a novel, or talk about a "Hopkins poem", and they'd happily say a "Titian" to refer to a painting by that artist.

You possibly can't just say a "Shakespeare" because he wrote plays and poetry (and in fact you do have 'Shakespeare Sonnets'), so you may need to define which. You probably couldn't refer to a "Browning poem", because it would not be clear whether you meant Elizabeth Barret Browning or Robert Browning.

In short, I don't really know what's wrong with the term. At bare minimum, it's quicker to say "a Shakespeare play" rather than "a play written by Shakespeare".

I think what he means is that by saying "___ was by shakespeare" people automaticaly assume it is one of the best written works of the last thousand years. Which it usualy isn't. Believe it or not, the plot idea for Romeo and Juleit, Shakespeares most famous work, was actualy a remake of some other guy's play written years before.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

*Shakespeare
**This one has bugged me for a while now. What the fuck is a 'Shakespeare Play?' You don't get a 'Tolkien Book' or a 'Shakespeare Poem' or 'Shakespeare Sonnet' (although you do get a '(Michael Bay's) Michael Bay Film (Directed by Michael Bay (MICHAEL BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneone)). It's just a play, written by Shakespeare.

You've clearly never seen a Shakespearian work in your life, have you?

Are you fucking kidding me? I live in England; they feed you that shit for breakfast until you're sixteen. You also clearly never read the rest of my post, did you? Besides, it's the bullshit term 'Shakespeare Play' that I'm complaining about.

Until I was eighteen, I'll think you'll find, and the reason they feed you it is because the majority of people find his plays to be spectacularly beautiful pieces of work. And if you could produce anything as good as him, you'd be rolling in money, not posting on this damn forum. I apologise, but your post stinks of 'I don't like Shakespeare, because blah blah blah', which is, frankly, tiresome, as no-one ever seems to explain what makes the man's works anything less than utter genius.

And, I should clarify. I should say 'Seen performed'. You really can't appreciate them until you've seen at least one performance.

 

[Merteg]

You don't like it because there are stupid people?

There will always be stupid people, they're a constant.

Even if Hitler got his way and stupid people could never have kids, they would still be born by the law of percentages.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

In this case, pertaining to English.

I was googleing the difference between poisonous and venomous (which I found out) and as I typed in my question the auto fill took over. The first suggestion by google after typing in "what is the difference between" was "what is the difference between effect and affect".

Sorry if this seems like over tread ground, but I have to release some bile. This bile stems from my experience in English class. My English classes were nothing more than exercises in multicolored pen use and drilling in white guilt. We didn't read ANY classic literature. The closest we got was 100 pages into Frankenstein, the teacher gave up and moved to.... multicolored pen use. I think I may have learned 3 new words in 4 years of High school. 2 of those words I learned in economics.

Back to the books, we didn't read anything memorable, thought provoking, or challenging. We tried Frankenstein in my Senior year and, like I said, the teacher gave up. He gave up because it was too difficult for most of the class. A book I read on my own in 6th grade was too hard for 12th graders... I'm just beyond happy that Twilight hadn't made it to my school while I was there, we would have read it had it been popular. We didn't need to read the Mars trilogy, but we could have at least finished Frankenstein. Maybe a part of the problem was that all of my high school English teachers almost exclusively used Ebonics...

That's just sad.
I just read Frankenstein over the summer, and I really liked it!
I''m a sophomore in highschool, so it can't be that hard...

 

[Smagmuck_]

In this case, pertaining to English.

I was googleing the difference between poisonous and venomous (which I found out) and as I typed in my question the auto fill took over. The first suggestion by google after typing in "what is the difference between" was "what is the difference between effect and affect".

Sorry if this seems like over tread ground, but I have to release some bile. This bile stems from my experience in English class. My English classes were nothing more than exercises in multicolored pen use and drilling in white guilt. We didn't read ANY classic literature. The closest we got was 100 pages into Frankenstein, the teacher gave up and moved to.... multicolored pen use. I think I may have learned 3 new words in 4 years of High school. 2 of those words I learned in economics.

Back to the books, we didn't read anything memorable, thought provoking, or challenging. We tried Frankenstein in my Senior year and, like I said, the teacher gave up. He gave up because it was too difficult for most of the class. A book I read on my own in 6th grade was too hard for 12th graders... I'm just beyond happy that Twilight hadn't made it to my school while I was there, we would have read it had it been popular. We didn't need to read the Mars trilogy, but we could have at least finished Frankenstein. Maybe a part of the problem was that all of my high school English teachers almost exclusively used Ebonics...

I have the something similar to this. Half the kids at my school are in a gang of some sort, and honestly, I see them dying from either being shot, stabbed, ODing or somthing else. I fit into the getting shot catagory but that's not becuase I'm in a gang, it's becuase I'm joining the corps. They either speak spanish in english class or the butcher the english language so bad it makes me wish I had no ears.

 

[Medic Heavy]

I wish my high school education was that easy.......The stuff I could do with aaaaaslll that more free time...the possibilities are endless.

 

[Romblen]

I always hated the stuff they made me read. 9 out of 10 times it's a story about Native Americans. These stories always, ALWAYS, mention how "evil" the white man is and how "enlightened" the Native Americans are.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Native Americans in particular, but enough with trying to make me feel guilty for it.

Oh well, it beats reading Romeo and Juliet. I had to read that in 9th grade. I don't care what anyone says, there's nothing great about Romeo and Juliet. I can give you at least ten books written in the past 20 years that everyone should read instead of Romeo and Juliet.

 

[Epitome]

EDIT: In my rush to be a grammer nazi I myself made many grammatical errors including confusing the mispronunciation of the word I was bitching about in the first place...

...and the spelling of another.

Okay I have been corrected like four times so far, chill!! i was taking a jab at a nationwide mispronunciation of a common word. Not picking at typo's in a forum post!!

 

[GreyWolf257]

God, that really sucks. We get loaded with all kinds of English work, and the funny thing is that where I live could be considered "The Deep South." I just finished reading the original version of Hamlet in my 10th grade class.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Am I the only one who thinks Shakespear plays are overhyped in this day and age? I mean, sure, in this day, everything was in context and made sense. But these days, half of the references make little to no sense, even if you decode the ole' English. I would have prefered to read Frankstein when I was in school, myself. Ok, MacBeth was good, but still not fun to read.

Taht's because Shakespeares writings are over 400 years old, and have been copied and used as inspiration for numerous, numerous other stories. It's really hard to read a story and not find some sort of Shakespearean influence. And as far as making sense, it's just the evolution of a language. Back in the day the word "fuck" was not considered a bad word.

OT: Frankenstein?? Really?? It's not that hard of a read, especially compared to other stories that were published around that time frame. If you want difficult pick up Moby Dick.

 

[51gunner]

Thank god I'm through with that now. I hated English classes. I've always preferred math/science (hell, I take engineering now in university, that should say enough). Teachers always seemed to take it personal when I answered the question "how did that make you feel" with "bored". I think "bored" is a perfectly valid response to that question. "Why did you feel bored?" "It was boring!".

Worse yet, I actually like reading. The drivel they cram down your throat here in Nova Scotia is a sorry excuse for a curriculum. Across grades 9-12 alone I'd estimate we spent two whole year's worth of time on poetry. "Classics" consisted of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. If you insist on Shakespeare, at least pick something better than those two rags. EVERYONE had to read those, but you only get one of these classics: Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies (There were three other choices, but they weren't noteworthy).

Imagine a curriculum that included things like Starship Troopers (THE BOOK, NOT THE MOVIE!), or Ender's Game. Starship Troopers is a wonderful look at government, and the ethics of military might. Ender's game analyzes violence, and the concept of terrible things done for a good purpose.

Books like that would never make it on a curriculum that had to be approved by a board though. Not 'safe'. Might advocate violence*.


*

Spoiler

Actually, this one's true. Both do argue the circumstances in which violence, swift and brutal violence, is the only logical response. They make damn good points though.

 

[Sheppard]

Bet you're all thinking it would be better to be Canadian....eh?

Yeah, I'm from Canada, and I am shocked that you guys only got through HALF of Frankenstein. Here it is a requirement that every year of English has at least one play(normally Shakespeare), and one book pertaining to social ill, such as racism.

Just goes to show where spending one trillion dollars on one cruddy war gets you, instead of spending that money on REAL education.

 

[Srkkl]

Dude I know what you mean, as a person who wants to be a writer it kills me even more. For class I have to read a book called "Their Eyes Were Watching God" which is 250+ pages of Ebonics, I want to murder the writer.

 

[Manbro]

I'm a bit disheartened with the Australian school system as well. Half the kids can't even spell simple fucking words; I just get the feeling the system has failed them.

What year are you up to?

Grade 12

 

[Doug]

Am I the only one who thinks Shakespear plays are overhyped in this day and age? I mean, sure, in this day, everything was in context and made sense. But these days, half of the references make little to no sense, even if you decode the ole' English. I would have prefered to read Frankstein when I was in school, myself. Ok, MacBeth was good, but still not fun to read.

Taht's because Shakespeares writings are over 400 years old, and have been copied and used as inspiration for numerous, numerous other stories. It's really hard to read a story and not find some sort of Shakespearean influence. And as far as making sense, it's just the evolution of a language. Back in the day the word "fuck" was not considered a bad word.

OT: Frankenstein?? Really?? It's not that hard of a read, especially compared to other stories that were published around that time frame. If you want difficult pick up Moby Dick.

I know - my point was why do we have to learn it in 400 year old English? Even that movie made little sense - when Romeo is exiled from Venice, I couldn't stop thinking "WTH?! Why is a modern police force NOT hunting he down outside of the city walls?"

What I'm basically saying is, why not make children aware of the originals, and of there influence, but teach them from an updated language version.